SPLENDOUR / Stina Nyberg (Stockholm)

In order to be strategic we have to know the game. We start to move and the music begins to play. When the wave hits you, each of you in your own account, it bounces back and at this very moment produces a new sound. We engage in a collective activity with personal intentions. It seems like no one in this room is responsible for anyone else, yet we can’t do it alone.

Splendouris a choreography that focuses on the body’s relationship to sound and how illusions of different causalities are created through actions and reactions. The piece is created through a daily “techno practice” where the rehearsals have consisted exclusively of performing the entirety of the piece - dancing the album Archive One by Dave Clarke from beginning to end. Bound by the most banal relationship between sound and movement and with an attempt to avoid all interpretation, elaboration or creativity as such, the performers anticipate the music in order to dothe sounds. The practice is strictly formulated through tasks relating to this doing, and in rehearsal no discussions are held concerning individual interpretation or performance. The performance is at the same time the result of the techno practice and the practice performed as such

Through not aiming for innovation, Splendour wants to steer away from improvisation that promotes individual choice and self-expression. The performance rather aims for an actual experience of self-determination. Working with emotions and reactions that occurs at the instance the sound hits you, Splendour creates the illusion of bodies creating sound. The techno suggests a dance where no one is dependent on anyone else to do it but where we insist on doing it together. In the same way, this piece is carried by the imagination and conviction of both performers and audience.

”Freedom and movement, as political things, must affirm their singularity away from clichés of what ”free movement” and ”moving freely” might be expected to be identified with, and represent.” André Lepecki ”Weaving Politics” 2012

Splendour premiered in December 2014 and is a new version of The Way Sounds Attack from 2010.